I was in an Uber on the way to have dinner with my friend Isabella and I saw what looked like two old friends sitting on a bench, catching up with each other. I thought how my neighbor Jane and I do that all the time. We text and say “Fancy a sit?” and choose a garden or a park to spend a little while together with no agenda, and how I love this town where you can meet up with a friend on a public bench on an ordinary day and let the conversation roam and be outdoors and connected to the pulse of the city and after, you feel like you did something good with your day, spent time with a soul you feel easy with, who drains your social battery hardly at all, just enough that you’re happy you were with them and now you’re happy to be back home, not restless or lonely anymore, not like you were before, because you sat on a bench under trees with a friend, or maybe you met up for a meal, such simple things, and now you feel peace.
Or meet a friend at the Waffle House and spend an hour or so over coffee and eggs with the comforting sounds of food being prepared and served and the murmur of hungry people being satisfied all around you.
ReplyDeleteNYC may be criticized for many things, I suppose, but not all those beautiful spaces for walking and sitting and keeping one's soul alive. I live a block from an Olmstead park in another city, and now am making a note to meet my neighbor there, because you're right, there is something about that added dimension that lets you drop everything else and appreciate what you have. ... And do you realize that you wrote a sentence nine lines long and it made perfect, lovely sense? Haven't seen a writer pull that off very often since the 19th century. ;)
ReplyDeleteOne of my friends lives at the other end of my street. We'll sit on her front porch every couple of weeks for just that. Catching up, commiserating, bitching.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds so nice.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to be with a friend - for lunch, for a sit, for a walk - wherever or whatever works!
ReplyDeleteLovely! Going to be celebrating my 70 th birthday next week in my favorite place. Central Park! My best friend is coming too, we will definitely share a bench.
ReplyDeleteXoxo
Barbara
How beautifully you capture a NYC scene and the ease of warm
ReplyDeletefriendships
That is so nice to read.
ReplyDeleteYou have good fortune in friends and lovely green spaces!
ReplyDeleteO my goodness! Yes. Something so simple and satisfying. I'm intrigued by the sign that says, "NO STANDING Anytime," with a two-ended arrow that seems to indicate "in every place to the left and every place to the right of this sign."
ReplyDeleteCodex
ReplyDeleteOde to benches. My grandmother who combined strength and gentleness in equal measure, used to sit on "her" bench in a park and invite whichever friend or neighbor she was in the mood for on that evening.
My best friend and I have a bench by a small, quiet river in her home town. We can park close enough to it to carry our coffee and treats across the grass - sometimes even cut grass - and watch the water as we catch up. Or, we could until one day when my friend looked, there was a water snake. A small, non-poisonous, timid snake. We are now hanging out at Starbucks.
ReplyDeleteBut, yes. A friend, some time and space, perfect.
This is why I have always longed to live in NYC. The benches and trees.
ReplyDeleteFancy a sit? If I had a coffee shop, this would be its name.
ReplyDeleteI'm not much of a sitter, but I love walking with a friend. It doesn't happen enough sadly, usually just me and the dogs.
ReplyDeleteI love this!
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